Old Cathedral, Salamanca: Capital in north nave arcade. Photo: John McNeill

Speaker(s): John McNeill FSA (Oxford University Department of Continuing Education)

Ticket/entry details: Open to all, free admission

Organised by: Ron Baxter and Nicola Coldstream

Unlike Romanesque architecture in Italy and France, where regional identity is strongly defined, that of northern Spain is unusually open to the work of masons and sculptors from beyond the Iberian peninsula. Reasons for this are not hard to find for the period between c.1075 and c.1120. What is less clear is why this situation endures through the 12th century - why repopulated cities such as Avila or Salamanca might call on designers from differing parts of France, while neighbouring Segovia could develop an apparently indigenous and distinctive regional style.

John McNeill teaches at Oxford University's Department of Continuing Education. He also acts as Honorary Secretary of the British Archaeological Association, for whom he has convened several conferences, most recently an international conference on Romanesque and the Past. He has both edited and contributed to a number of volumes concerned with medieval art, architecture and archaeology and has a particular interest in Romanesque architectural sculpture in western France and Spain.